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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22449397">Roses &amp; Thorns</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihrsuri/pseuds/mihrsuri'>mihrsuri</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Rewrite The Stars Mini Fics [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Tudors (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character of Faith, Female Character of Color, Islamophobia, Multi, POV Female Character, Period-Typical Sexism, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, Tumblr Prompt, Victim Blaming</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 14:29:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>953</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22449397</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihrsuri/pseuds/mihrsuri</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Various Tudors OT3 verse prompt responses.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anne Boleyn/Thomas Cromwell/Henry VIII of England</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Rewrite The Stars Mini Fics [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1113159</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Roses &amp; Thorns</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/gifts">AllegoriesInMediaRes (AllegoriesInMediasRes)</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>She would never know how much those words had comforted her.” </b>
</p>
<p>Mary has always wanted to be a big sister for as long as she can remember. She has also known it was not something she could speak of, because it pained both her parents so much. She had always known that, as well - being not yet three years old when her mother had had her last pregnancy meant that Mary had never known a time when she had really, truly been able to hope for a sibling. </p>
<p>And she had not wanted to cause her mother, who wanted to give her one so very much, any more pain (or her father). As she grows Mary remembers she had decided that she be the best child she could be, as her parents only had her. Her mother had cried and smoothed her hair when she had told her that, something that Mary only understands as she grows. </p>
<p>Sometimes she wonders what it might have been like, had any of her mothers other children lived - sometimes, sometimes she has wondered if her parents wished to trade her for one of their boys who did not draw breath. In her darkest moments she has sometimes thought to ask her father if he would have preferred she had died, to make his life simpler. </p>
<p>That it is why, that is why it is hard sometimes to know how much of a comfort her siblings are, when they arrive. Elizabeth, Thomas, George, William, Margaret, Owen, Edmund and Philippa. She counts them off in her mind, the love they give her - uncomplicated by anything but adoration for an older sister and wonders, why is it worth it - how can she love them and their mother so much when they came at the expense of so much heartache? She has never known - even when it comes to her husband and her own darling children she sometimes wonders if she has sacrificed her duty for her heart and her happiness. </p>
<p>(Bishop Gardiner certainly thought so, though he would never say it to her outright). </p>
<p>It is why it is strange that Mihrimah Sultan is the one who brings peace to her heart. “I do not think that Allah means for us to be unhappy” she hears her say to Tommy once and that, that is the first time Mary feels in heart that this was the Lords doing - that all things will be well.</p><hr/>
<p>
  <b>“Why did you do that?” “Pure spite.”</b>
</p>
<p>There are many reasons Mihrimah could put towards her dislike of Bishop Gardiner. He hadn’t dared to insult her mother outright but a pointed sermon about ‘the martyrs of the faith who refused to give in to the heathens even unto death rather than be so dishonoured’ is clearly meant. Mihrimah does not forget it. She does not forget his look of loathing at her nor does she forget the long lecture on the importance of her “conversion to the true faith” by both Gardiner and the Reformer Priests - but it is Gardiner who tells her “that he is sure the Princess understands her mistaken heresy now she has been instructed correctly and so will not burn as a heathen” and then presses his hand to hers until it hurts.</p>
<p>She is thankful that she does not have to deal with him often but she knows she must be politic - he still has some influence at court, though Allah willing it will change with time and careful work. Mihrimah will certainly work to make it so.</p>
<p>“The Lord willing the heretical moorish bitch will die and take her brat with her and we can see towards stemming the tide of heresy in this kingdom” </p>
<p>When his words are bought to Mihrimah she is angry (for herself, for her child, for her Thomas) but she is not scared. She refuses to be scared. It is her father in law who asks that he may deal with Gardiner. It is her father in law who reduces him and has him kneel before Mihrimah before he is permitted to leave - by crawling backwards in front of the court. When she asks him, afterwards, why he would do such - perhaps a reprimand might have been better, he smiles in that quiet way that sometimes reminds her of her own father and says that he was only doing what was right. </p>
<p>“And I must own, my daughter” (Mihrimah had asked Thomas Cromwell to call her daughter almost immediately - it had felt no betrayal of her own father, because there is room in her heart for them both) “that it was also pure spite for having to endure many harangues from him myself” </p>
<p>They laugh together then, the two of them.</p><hr/>
<p>Wyatt is staring at her again, Mary can see it in her youngest sisters face and in her youngest daughters glare (Anne had always been particularly protective of her ‘little sister aunt’) and Mary, once again wishes she had the power to order someone to the Tower. But there is nothing to be done - not when the man is merely staring - nothing but to keep him as far away as possible from Pippa which is generally not a difficulty - Wyatt is not regularly invited to court but sometimes he must be invited and thus, he is staring at her. </p>
<p>The world knows that Thomas Wyatt is still in love with the Queen (his poems make that clear enough) and Pippa? Pippa is her mother in miniature - though her hair curls on its own and she is so much like onto the tales of Elizabeth of York that Mary has heard that she wonders if perhaps she is not of Thomas Cromwells blood after all.</p>
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